Sunday, July 27, 2008

Why so serious?

So we had a great time revisiting Batman Begins yesterday, and then poking fun at Batman: The Movie. There's a lot to enjoy in the camp performances of Adam West, Burt Ward, Cesar Romero, Lee Meriwether, Frank Gorshin and Burgess Meredith.

Today, we went out to see The Dark Knight, which we all really enjoyed as well. The story was excellent, and Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is worthy of the posthumous Oscar nomination that has been thrown around in the mainstream press.

It's a dark movie, to be sure - as far removed from the camp of the old TV series and even the lows of the 80s series. Compare Aaron Eckhardt's Harvey Dent to Tommy Lee Jones or Ledger to Jack Nicholson's Joker, and there's no comparison.

I had a few quibbles here and there - notably in the manipulation of the final footage of the Joker, and I can't help but wonder if they truly had wrapped on his performance when he died. Nevertheless, the film is not lacking for closure nor for solid performances throughout.

It will be interesting to see where they take the series from here - in the mean time I look forward to watching The Dark Knight again on the big screen.